I would venture to guess that I have tasted more brands and varieties of peanut butter than anyone else in the world. While I await the call from Guinness Book of World Record’s, I plan to entertain you and your taste buds with a few more reviews. Has anyone seen or tasted the peanut butter pictured above? I thought not. That’s because I have reason to believe it may not be from this dimension. Speaking of which, what do Mother’s Day and the Twilight Zone have in common? Read on to find out…

Reviews:

First, I want to take you on a journey to a place you should never go – Yuma, Arizona. Tucked away in the middle of nowhere is Yuma, a city that looks like it fell out of a timeslip. If you like the Twilight Zone then you’ll feel right at home in Yuma with its eclectic mix of people and buildings – constructions from the 1960′s along with stores whose names are painted on cardboard signs all intermixed with newly erected Targets and Starbucks. During one of my business trips there I found the Peanut Patch, a store that sells their own peanut butter along with a variety of nuts, confections and other delights. I naturally had to stop in and taste their offerings. Their peanut butter is rich and thick, a very coarse grind that is considered “creamy” but has so many tiny chunks throughout that makes it a wonderful combination of creamy and crunchy. What I noticed most was the sweetness of the peanut butter despite the lack of added sugar. The peanuts tasted so fresh that I didn’t need to add any salt on top of the minimal amount it contained. A very unique peanut butter that is the ultimate for peanut butter sandwiches. I was flying home that evening so I had to make room in my checked bag for any purchases since peanut butter is considered a “liquid”. Naturally a 1lb jar wasn’t enough so I bought a 2 lb tub. Upon returning home, however, the tub was emptied quickly – perhaps it fell back into the timeslip….

Lee Zalben, Peanut Butter & Co, must be a mama’s boy because he has just released Mom’s Lil’ Box O’ Bonbons to celebrate Mother’s Day. These bonbons contain their infamous white chocolate peanut butter with crispy rice and are covered in a decorative shell of milk chocolate. I’m not a fan of milk chocolate because it’s generally too sweet but this is a bonbon, it’s supposed to be sweet, and plus the shell itself is very thin and adds just enough chocolate flavor to the bonbon. As for the center, I didn’t read the box first so I didn’t know (and wouldn’t have guessed) that there was white chocolate peanut butter inside. But I did notice how creamy it was while not oozing out of the shell. There is a very nice crunch inside but upon closer inspection, I didn’t notice anything that looked “crunchy”, just a creamy peanut butter filling. It’s almost as if there’s an invisible graham cracker inside giving the bonbon a much nicer texture overall. And if you look at the ingredients, it’s exactly what you’d expect: milk chocolate, white chocolate peanut butter and toasted rice. The decorative top adds to the appeal and makes a perfect present for the mother who turned you into a peanut butter fanatic. To top it all off, each bonbon is only around 50 calories and has only 2g sugar, which seems too low for how satisfyingly sweet it is.

Skippy Natural Creamy

= 75%

I’ve often ripped on Skippy for barely tasting like peanuts but this natural no-stir variety is a definite improvement. The texture is similar to the original Skippy but the oil tends to separate easier, regardless of the no-stir technology. There is something to be said about the flavor too, I can’t quite pinpoint it but it’s slightly addicting. Not bad Skippy, not bad. I would go so far as to recommend this peanut butter to those Skippy lovers who just can’t “Skip” their Skippy habit.

Skippy Natural Super Chunk

= 70%

Also not bad. A very similar offering to the creamy varient, the super chunk variety has just what you would expect, lots of chunks. I like the chunks and that intriguing flavor but I prefer the creamy version of this peanut butter, perhaps because the taste of the peanuts don’t quite match the taste of the peanut butter. Whether or not that’s a good sign, I’m not sure…

Jif Natural

= 70%

The only ingredients here are peanuts, salt and sugar. I always like my peanut butter to be salted, I feel that it contributes to the flavor and texture of peanut butter. As for the sugar, it may only be a small amount but I find it unnecessary since it detracts from the peanut flavor. That being said, this is a very good peanut butter. Good flavor and a nice consistency. My confusion with this peanut butter is that I’ve bought it twice. The first time was in Yuma (see above) and the thickness was between that of Trader Joe’s creamy and 365 Creamy – fairly runny but intermixed with the tiny chunks that accommodate a coarse grind. It also didn’t contain Palm Oil at that time. The second time I bought it around my house, it was much closer to that of Skippy Natural. Either Jif changed the recipe or the city of Yuma, Arizona really did fall out of a timeslip. I preferred the Yuma version but if you feel like something a little bit sweeter, this will hit the spot without overwhelming you with sugar and is a good replacement for standard Jif of Skippy. Perfect for a peanut butter hot dog.

I agree on the 365, it’s sold in bulk in Canada (at Bulk Barn – it’s the organic natural), and is the perfect runny peanut butter, great for dripping/dropping on oatmeal or peanut butter cereal. The salty flavour also mixes very well with cottage cheese to make a delicious dip for apples or veggies.